Play yards are used to contain and provide a safe environment for a child for sleeping or playing. Typically, play yards are collapsible so they can be stored or transported easily. Currently, play yards are manufactured with a frame that consists of a combination of assembled metal and plastic components with a fabric body that wraps around the frame to provide an enclosure to retain the child within the play yard. Play yards can be equipped with a bassinet assembly that can be supported by the play yard frame to establish an enclosed sleep area at a higher level than the bottom floor surface of the play yard to provide an easy access to the child without requiring the caregiver to bend to access the floor of the play yard.
The fabric body typically includes mesh portions corresponding to the sides and ends of the play yard to facilitate viewing of a child within the play yard. The fabric body is typically supported on the upper horizontal frame members and is pulled downwardly therefrom over the vertical frame members to be supported on the lower frame members and fastened to the play yard frame by using a screw and a plastic cap over the screw fastener. Such a fabric body provides an open view of the underside of the play yard. Some play yards are then provided with an additional panel of fabric that hangs down from the lower horizontal frame members to provide a loose ruffle around the bottom of the play yard to hide the opening between the floor of the play yard and the floor on which the play yard is positioned.
In PCT Patent Application No. PCT/FR98/02219, published as WO99/20161 on Apr. 20, 1999, the play yard includes a fabric body that extends upwardly from the lower horizontal frame members of the play yard to loop over the upper horizontal frame members. The overlap of the fabric body at the top of the play yard is provided with corner pieces that extend downwardly from the overlap portion to secure to the vertical frame members. In U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0074000, filed by Douglas Tharalson, et al and published on Apr. 22, 2004, a fabric covering designed to be applied to an existing play yard, crib or other freestanding apparatus to convert the play yard into a storage facility for toys, etc. This fabric covering of Tharalson is not intended to be a fabric body of a play yard, but to be positioned on the outside of a play yard fabric body. This Tharalson fabric covering extends over the play yard floor, inner surfaces and outer surfaces and is fastened to through the mesh portion of the play yard fabric body and tied off against the foot members of the play yard.
Converting a play yard into a raised bassinet for a child to sleep while providing easy access to the sleeping child for the caregiver is known in the art, as is represented in U.S. Pat. No. 3,018,493, granted to Gertrude Wittbrodt on Jan. 30, 1962. In the Wittbrodt patent, the floor of the play pen is raised into an elevated position to form a bassinet structure by fastening a central canvas member around the upper horizontal frame supports of the play pen. Attaching the central canvas members to the upper frame members shortens the vertical walls of the fabric body to raise the floor of the play pen to bassinet height. The floor of the play pen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,470, issued to Louis Shamie on Aug. 23, 1994, is also elevated to establish a changing table from the play pen structure. The Shamie floor is temporarily supported on releasable clips that are supported from the upper horizontal frame members of the play pen.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,709, issued to Ying-Hsiung Cheng on Sep. 27, 1994, a separate floor frame is provided to permit the selective mounting of the floor frame to the upper horizontal frame members of the play yard to position the floor of the play yard at either a raised position, which could be utilized for a bassinet or a changing table, or a lowered position, which would provide the conventional floor of a play yard. An independent frame structure to establish a raised inner play yard structure, which has an elevated floor compared to the location of the floor for the outer play yard structure, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,427, granted on Apr. 1, 1997, to Li-chu Huang. The elevated inner play yard could be utilized as a bassinet or as a changing table. None of these known prior art references, however, provides for a variably positionable bassinet structure, one in which the floor portion of the bassinet can be selectively located at adjustable heights to establish an extended period of use for the bassinet structure for older infants.
It would be desirable to provide a high chair structure that establishes a taut fabric enclosure around the play yard frame from the upper frame members of the play yard to the floor on which the play yard is positioned to hide the opening between the lower horizontal frame members of the play yard and the building floor. It would also be desirable to provide a bassinet structure that could be utilized to adjust the height of the bassinet relative to the upper horizontal frame members of the play yard.